Blinni and a(nother) Russian Institution

Yesterday was a Saturday afternoon. We spent it, as we usually do when the weather is overcast and a little cool, at the American Home. It was a little unique because we began pulling our personal things out of our little cubbie-holes and storage spaces, only to be confronted with the fact that we either have to cart home to the States or get rid of a lot of STUFF! It's going to be interesting.

We also made a nice dinner which included Russian blinni (Thanks for cooking blinni, Molly!) and followed it up with another Russian favorite, some Cheburashka cartoons. Cheburashka is a little creature of unknown origin who cutely popped out of an orage crate and makes an appearence in four short stop-motion animation films from the Soviet '70s. He's cute; befriends an easy-going crocodile names Gena; is sometimes foiled by the quasi-evil, but strangely grandmotherly, Shapaklyak; and learns many life lessons. It's cute, and despite the fact that there is barely an hour of existing films, he is wildly popular over 30 years after his creation. (If you look closely at Olympic footage, you'll see him as a sort of mascot for Russian teams in both of the last two Olympiads.) You can read more about him here: Wikipedia, giver of knowledge.

This is also the source of one of may favorite sentences in the Russian language, which goes like this: Жил в городе крокодил. Его зовут Гена. Он работал в зоопарке крокодилом. (There lived in the city a crocodile. His name is Gena. He worked at the zoo as a crocodile.)

So, with that our semester is winding down. My parents and sister are in London now and will be here on Saturday to visit, which is still hard to believe. These next two weeks are going to be crazy!

I'm Scary!

I'm scary. Didn't you know? I scare teenage girls! I yell at adults! I'm just SCARY!

Well, actually I don't think I'm that bad. I'd like to think of myself as a nice guy. But, then there are these little vignettes:

I. The other day we had new prospective students to test them for their level of English. Part of this is an oral interview with one of the Americans. I do this pretty often and invariable I get a 13-14 year old, usually girl, who is scared to death of this big American boy who speaks English at them. (I'm also told that I speak "very quickly," but since I'm from Indiana we all know that that ain't true!) Last week, a 13-14 year old girl didn't say a word:

Me: "My name is Aaron. How are you?" Her: Nothing.
Me: "Where do you go to school?" Her: Nothing.
Me: "What are you doing right now?" Her: You guessed it, nothing.
Me, in Russian: "That's fine. Do you have any questions you'd like to ask?" Her: Nothing.
Me: "Okay, it was nice talking to you."

II. I don't like it when people use cell phones and/or cheat on exams. Those students who do this, and persist in it, I tell them how I feel. I guess this makes me scary ;)

III. One of Molly's students used the Russian word "gul" to describe me and my voice. It means "echo" or "reverberation." When Molly asked her if I was scary, she replied: "You can't say he's scary, but on the other hand, you can't say that he's not."

There you have it: You can't say that I'm not.

Flowers of June

Last weekend when we went to Sergeev Posad, one of the things I had plenty of chance to take pictures of were flowers. Everything was in full bloom and beautiful. My pictures were helped by the fact the it was clear and sunny, without a cloub in the sky. In short a perfect day to snap some pictures.

Sunday Day-trip

I had forgotten how nice it is to be able to drive places on your own schedule! After months of public transportation we took a little trip to Sergeev Posad, by car! Natasha who works here at the AH, Joanna, Eric, Molly and I joined some of our students and friends, Larissa, Marina, her son, and a co-worker of Marina’s on a road trip. Sergeev Posad is a small town northeast of Moscow that is home to one of the most famous and beautiful monasteries in Russia, The Trinity-Sergius Monastary. We were there on Sunday during mass which was very interesting. As you can see, I took tons of pictures.

After thoroughly checking out the monastery, we drove a few miles to Abramtsevo. It is a small estate that in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was owned by a wealthy Moscow industrialist who invited artists like Repin and Vasnetsov to the estate, a sort of artists’ colony. In addition to pleasant woods, a beautiful stone church, and some pretty wooded buildings, there are museums and workshops for things like painting, woodworking, and ceramics. We spent some time wandering the grounds and, you guessed it, taking more pictures.

After Abramtsevo we drove a short while and stopped for a picnic lunch and some relaxation. On the way home, we went via the little town of Radonezh. It’s a small town with a church and a spring that is famously connected to St. Sergei of Radonezh, who was the founder of the monastery in Sergeev Posad. It’s a very pretty place and we took the chance to have a dip in the spring-fed stream and drink some of the water from the spring that is believed to have cleansing powers.

In all, it was a relaxing, beautiful day that I think we all really enjoyed. I know that I'm enjoying summer, but the time is going very fast. We have barely three weeks left to teach! Yikes!

The Family is Coming, The Family is Coming!

As I was informed in a comment, I neglected to mention that my family is also coming to visit me in Russia at the end of the month.

After a whirlwind tour of London and Paris, Mom; Dad; my sister, and a family friend are coming to Russia! They'll be in Moscow for a few days, then to Vladimir for a short stay and then on to St. Petersburg as the last stop on the voyage.

I'm really excited that they are coming: now they can maybe understand why I've come to Russia twice! I'm going to try and be the best tour guide/interpreter that I can be, but unfortunately they're arriving right at the end of our summer semester here at the AH, which is always a crazy time.

As for that, we had midterm exams for the summer semester yesterday, so today will mostly be spent hanging out and grading them. So far they seem to be doing okay. They need to be graded today because tomorrow we're teaming up with some students and taking a trip to Sergeev Posad, which is a town famous for its monastaries and beautiful churches. I think that we're going to take a picnic lunch and make a day out of it. It will be a long day, but with the cooler weather that we're having, it should be very enjoyable.

The last part of this post is a little picture I took a while back. Can anyone figure out what it is?

School Update

School is going well and very quickly. The summer session is intensive. Instead of twice a week for 3 hours total for 15 weeks, the summer is 3 times a week for almost 7 hours, but only for about 6 weeks. It's the same number of hours over the semester, but two 2hour 15 minute classes in a night are pretty exhausting.

Midterm exams are this week and then we'll have class until June 27, the final day. (We do have one short vacation of one day for Russian Constitution Day or whatever.)

All in all, while I'm going to miss lots about Vladimir (host-babushka, co-workers, etc) I'm really excited to travel to Siberia and also to begin school in the fall. August 21st will be here before I know it and I feel like a little kid getting ready to go to kindergarten for the first time!

Speaking of Siberia and Baikal, we got accepted into the program and so we know where we will be working: Great Baikal Trail Project Our project is called "The Jungles of Kamar-Daban," sounds pretty awesome to me!

Sunday Politics...

Commentary from The NYT on the state of Russian justice and its hopeless entanglement in the political system. The quote below seems to be the most pertinent to the situation that arose this week when authorities in Great Britain began seeking the extradition of a former KGB officer in the poisoning of Litvinenko.

The cynicism has been a hallmark of Mr. Putin’s presidency, allowing him to consolidate power by using the law to weaken the media, marginalize opposition parties and imprison political enemies. It is now being used to paint Britain as wielding its judicial system in Mr. Litvinenko’s murder in the same way Russia often wields its own — manipulating the law for political ends.

Who knows what will happen next. The more I read about, it the less I understand.

News...

A little a bit of news from Russia: First more mine disaster from the same region where a different mine exploded two months ago killing dozens.

Mine Blast Kills 38

Also, Putin has been in Europe for the last few days, especially talking about the Russian economy and the Russia's growing wealth.

Putin Touts Economiuc Strength

Post Number Two of the Day...

...but I couldn't resist. Here's a pretty hilarious article from 2001 from The Onion archives. (Thanks to Molly for finding it!)

Russia Aquires Amway Distributorship

Also, in other news the Brits are charging a Russian in last fall's poisoning/murder of ex KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko. Is anyone surprised?

Read All About It!

Some Politics

So the recent EU-Russia summit in Samara went off not-so-well. First there was the planned protest that didn't get off the groud and then there was the fact that there was little agreement between the two parties on...anything. Issues like the Russians' tiff with Estonia and the disagreement between Poland and Russia over Polish meat exports do little to improve things. On the other hand, as the article below notes, European and German dependence on Russia for energy supplies make this relationship vital, if no less contentious.

EU-Russia Relations in the NYT

The other thing that looms is the fact that by this time next year we should know who Putin's successor will be. That said, the picture is far from clear. There are some candidates (unofficial, of course,) but I have a feeling that Putin will pull a rabbit out of the hat, much the same way that Yeltsin did when he plucked Putin from relative obscurity to Prime Minister and then hand-chosen successor.

Some Commentary on the state of political Russia from The Moscow Times

Last Thursday evening brought one of those pleasant summer rainstorms that blankets the flowers with water drops and forms puddles everywhere. (Don't lie and say you didn't like jumping in them when you were a kid.)






We took a few pictures and these are the results. They are a little dark due to the low light, but I didn't want to spoil them with Photoshop, so here they are.

Lake Baikal Adventure

Call me crazy, but at least hear me out. This July, Molly and I are going to pay money to work hard. But it will be completely worth it because we will be working on the shores of one of the most unique places on the planet. Most people have never heard of it, but it's amazing.

Lake Baikal is the found in Siberia, some five time-zones from Moscow and European Russia. It contains 20% of the world's fresh surface water. Yes, that's right: 1/5th. That's because it's a big lake coupled with the fact that it is over 1600 meters deep.

More than that, it is home to thousands of cool endemic species of plant, animal, fish, etc. Included it the plethora of flora and fauna is the Nerpa seal, the world's only freshwater seal.

Unlike most parts of the environment in Russia, Baikal is in comparatively good shape. It has its problems, but overall is cleaner and better cared for than almost anywhere else in this vast country.

So, you ask, what are we going to do there? The answer is: build trails. Here's the website for the program: http://www.greatbaikaltrail.org/.

Their goal is to build a network of trails that ring the lake and make it more accessable to people who will enjoy the natural wonders that the lake and it's surrounding areas, which include several national parks open to all.

Here's a link to the Wikipedia article on Baikal: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_baikal.

Here's a link to an image of Baikal from space: http://www.irkutsk.org/baikal/space.htm.
If you want more about it...Google it!

Day and Night

I have a quick, not to deep observation about life in Russia. The days are getting much longer.

The last two mornings I have awoken to find it broad daylight outside. Sleepily rolling over, I see that my alarmclock tells me it is 5:30 and I can sleep another several hours. On the other end, in the evening it the sets and it begins to get dark around 10:00, and that with over a month to go before the solstace. I can prove it: I took this picture last night just before 10 pm.

Nature is cool that way. We are finally making up for all those days when it was dark when class began at 4:00 pm.

End of Class and Good-Byes

Now that I've shared a little about our vacation, I thought I should post a couple of pictures of the last days of class. For the most part, the end of semester was great. Most of my students did very well and we had a fun last day just hanging out and talking. I also got some great gifts from them. (Thanks guys!)

I also have a couple of pictures of other activities from that last crazed week of April:

These pictures are from a last dinner that we fixed for Nicole on her last night here in Vladimir. We had a good time and we miss her already!




Also necessary, is this picture of Gosha, who stalks the American Home yard, but never seams to catch anything or do a good job of defending the territory.

Vacation: With Pictures!

This is going to be a bit of a long post, but I wanted to let everyone know how our vacation to Ukraine went. In a word: great!

Molly and I left Vladimir on Sunday and got to Odessa late on Monday after a long train ride. Odessa is a beautiful city in May. Temperatures were warm, but not so warm that we could really enjoy the beach too much. Spring was in full bloom with many big beautiful trees lining the streets of the old part of town and flowers everywhere: flowers in beds, flowers in pots, flowers on restaurants,
flowers in the hostel where we stayed.

We visited a few restaurants and went biking on rented bikes in a park.The hostel where we stayed was cool and we met some interesting people. It was also nice because, even though it is in Ukraine, most people in Odessa speak Russian.

After a couple of days and nights in Odessa, we took a night train to L'viv, the major city of western Ukraine. We arrived early in the morning and made our way to the center of town where we had arranged to rent an apartment for a few days. We found that the apartment was in the very center of the city, in a buiding that faces the medieval town hall.




We did some walking around, following the guide book to some of the touristy spots: churches and such. We found a square with a book market and bought some old Russian books for very cheap. We also spent time visiting restaurants, cafes, and so on. We bargained (not really, because we don't speak Ukrainian) with street vendors to buy fruits and vegetables for the meals we cooked ourselves and so on. One of the cafes had a cool wall full of old coffee mills. As many of you know, I'm a hopeless addict: while it was European style coffee and not the American style bucket of java I like, it was still great!

Ukrainian is pervasive in the city and that part of Ukriane has a reputation for having strong pro-Ukrainian feeling. We were able to get buy with our "Pleases" and "Thank yous" in Ukrainian, often understanding with difficulty onlythose parts of what people said that was similar to Russian. Many people, including Russians, don't think of Ukrainian as a separate language, but it is!

Finally, on the Saturday and Sunday that we were there, the city was celebrating a festival "City Day" complete with banners, singing, dancing, food, and street performers, like these guys and gals, who were doing sword fighting demonstrations outside our door in the town square! Also prominent in the town square, these lion statues: they appear to be kissing...perhaps connected with the town's name: lev=lion.

Lviv/L'vov/Lwow...however it's spelled in Latin letters!) is a cool city, it's only drawback being that it closes down early, which was cool with us: we took the evenings to relax in our apartment and rest. Having seen some of what the city had to offer, we headed on a night train to Kiev and the way home. We arrived Tuesday morning in Kiev, spent the day in the city seeing a little slice of it and spending our last few hryvna and then took another train for Moscow that night, arriving back home in Vladimir in the late afternoon on Wednesday.

In Kiev, we saw several cool things, including the ancient Kiev-Caves Monastery, where monks dug caves to live in and then were buried in their caves. You can see a tiny part of it as well as the churches and buildings that they took the time to build above ground. We also checked out a few slices of the rapidly modernizing city that is Kiev. One of my favorite spots in the city was the Adreevsky uzviz, a steep winding street lined with artists and people peddling souvenirs, paintings, and other art (it might be a bit strong to call it all "art," but nonetheless, it's a charming spot.)

All in all an amazing trip. We spent about ten days traveling to places we'd never been (with the exception of Molly's trip to Kiev), seeing new things, hearing new languages, and so on. I think I've caught the "I-want-to-learn-Ukranian disease" It's a lot like Russian, with elements of the little Czech that I know thrown in. There's no help for me now. Once I start learning a third Slavic language, it would all be over!

A Vacation Update and Some News

So, we're here in Odessa on vacation. The city is beautiful and interesting with lots of old buildings and pleasant streets with trees everywhere. The weather is still a bit cold for the beach, but we braved it for a while yesterday. Today we are hanging out a little and then we are catching a night train to Lviv, a city in the far western part of Ukraine that is reportedly very beautiful and not crawling with tourists.

In news, Russia and Estonia continue their spat over a monument to Red Army soldiers. The Russians seem to feel that the monument is in memory of those who died fighting the Nazis, but Estonians see it as a reminder of their occupation by the Soviets both after the 1938 Nazi-Soviet Pact and again after the Germans were driven from Estonia by the Red Army.

BBC has the details

Moscow Times Commentary

End of the Semster...

...is upon us. I wanted to post some pictures of me and my classes before heading for Ukraine for vacation, but we are losing Internet here shortly, so I guess it will have to wait until later. It might be a few days before I get a chance to get on and blog!

R.I.P. Boris Nikolayevich

It will be interesting to see how the Russian government and people react to Yeltsin's death and how his funeral and things go. I think it will be interesting because it will bring memories of the rough years of the 90's back to the forefront. You have to give him some credit for helping to bring down a totalitarian state with a minium of violence and blodshed. (You can imagine the "Yugoslavia in 11 time-zones" nightmare."

NYT on Yeltsin's Death

Gates Showed Up in Moscow to talk to the Russians about missle defence.

We'll Always Have...Murom

This weekend Sara, Joanna, Eric, and I took a little trip to Murom at the invitation of the English teachers and students at the local college. We left Vladimir at what seemed like the crack of dawn on Saturday morning on the 2.5-3 hour bumpy bus ride. The afternoon we spent listening, and judging, presentations by some of the students followed by by some more presentations and so on. In the evening we went to stay with host-students and their families. Each of us had a different one. I spent the evening hanging out with my host and her friends at a cafe, talking about the kinds of things that we usually talk about when meeting Russians for the first time. Sunday morning we took a little walk around the city and such. It was pretty cold and rainy and by the end I was ready to hop back on the bus to Vladimir and get home to a hot meal, a shower, and a book. All in all, despite a few moments, it was nice to get out and do something and see a place we've never been.

As is my habit, here's some news:
More Fun With Media and NGO's

News Will Be Happy, Or Else!

Commentary on Russian-American Relations

Commentary from the NYT on Chukotka and Russia's Far Northern expanses.

Опять политика...

This article in The Moscow Times gives a pretty good impression of the situation here in the wake of the government's crackdown on last weekend's tiny protests. The powers that be seem nervous. It goes a long way to explaining the government's reaction to opposition and the reaction to events in Ukraine and other world events.

Also, here's an interesting article about Eastern Europe and it's growing position as an outsourcing area for Western Europe-based businesses.

...and Monday Morning

I've got a picture from last week's trip to Bogolyubovo. Picture credit to Molly.

Also, another picture from a while back when we were in Moscow, also one of Molly's.

Russian language news seems to play it as a few members of a "radical opposition," painting anyone who would oppose the current order as an extremist. For those who can read Russian there is Rambler.ru which makes things sound orderly.
On the other hand, there is The Moscow Times on this weeekend's festivities, which seem chaotic. Also interesting is this story, by a photographer who was swept up by the police and then released. I wasn't there, so I'll leave it to you to decide.

P.S. The NYT

Also, let's save polar bears by killing them.

Sunday...

...this week, I'm not working on Sunday, just killing some time on the Internet before heading of to spend some time relaxing and reading in our favorite cafe. It's sunny, but cold, so the thought of spending a lot of time outside is a non-starter.

Also, if you didn't catch this, you might want to read about Moscow events from yesterday in this story from the NYT

P.S. There's another related article that just appeared.

Bogolyobovo

Today was Wednesday and we had a little bit of free time, so Nicole, Molly, and I headed for Bogolyobovo. It's a small village just to the east of Vladimir that was once the seat of the aptly named Andrei Bogolyobsky (the Pious). It's is most famous for the little white church in the picture. It is praised by many as the epitome of medieval architecture in this part of Russia. The location, at the confluence of two rivers, adds something to it too. It took is a long while of tromping around (part of the time on the wrong side of the river) to get on the right side and on the path to the church. When we headed back to the AH, we arrived just in time for Russian lunch, which was delicious. In addition to lunch, we were celebrating Molly's birthday, which is today. ;)

Also, Jessa, to answer your question: Yes, there is "Russian Dressing" on Russian salads. Russian salads rarely have any lettuce in them. The constant ingredient is the dressing. By dressing, I mean "mayonnaise." I'm not a big fan of mayonnaise anyway, so it's like a holiday when we find way to order vegetables in a restaurant that lack this all-important ingredient in every salad.

Where's My Hair?

So after having had one haircut since I got here in August (and that one months ago) I finally broke down and went and got a haircut. If you know me, you know that it's usually pretty short, but I had gotten used to looking like the fifth-Beatle or somthing like that. So, here are the before and after pics:

Politics Again

Yushchenko's Opinion Piece about why he chose to call for elections. There is also a piece in The Moscow Times about the Situation in Kiyv. As an American I am inclined to see it from the pro-Western Yushchenko's point of view, but clearly there are a lot of people in the country who support Yanukovich.

Here in Vladimir, winter has made an attempt to return as the temperature plunged yesterday and there were patches of snow here and there on the ground and on buildings this morning: another day in paradise.

More Ukraine

More Ukraine Fun Another article in The New York Times about what seems to be a developing Ukrainian political crisis.

Here'sWhat The Moscow Times has to say about it.

It's hard to tell right now, but it seems like the normal growing pains of a functioning, if tumultuous, democracy. This is of course in stark contrast the politics of many of the other post-Soviet countries.

Other than that, a warm, sunny day at work.

Bagpipes?

Molly, Nicole, and I were headed to the coffee shop Sunday afternoon for a cup of coffee and some relaxation when we came upon this guy:
I'm not sure how a bagpipe-playing guy showed up in Vladimir, but we put down a few rubles and listened for a few minutes.

Here's a picture of Nicole and Molly that I snapped at the same time. We're all sad because we are going to be losing our Nicole at the end of the month as she goes back to the States to claim her Master's and find what is known as a "real job!"

Also in the news today is more political turmoil in neighboring Ukraine. The pro-Western president, Yushchenko, is facing an over-assertive parliament and it's leader, the pro-Russian Yanukovich. (You might remember that Yanukovich is the guy who was Yushchenko's opponent in the presidential election back in 2004.) As a result of a further strengthening of the opposition majority, Yushchenko is calling for new parliamentary elections late next month. It may not be as scandalous as Italian politics, but it is very interesting because Ukraine is riding the balance between pro-Western, EU-facing influences and East-leaning, pro-Russian ones. Read All About It

April Begins

It's hard to believe that March has come and gone and April is here. We've had some of the best weather I can imagine lately. It's been sunny and cool for two weeks straight now.

Yesterday I gave a presentation here at the American Home about College Sports, something near and dear to might heart that doesn't really exist here. We followed that up with Rudy and a game of whiffle ball in the back yard. All in all, a fun day. Other than that, we have several busy weeks to finish up this semester. We've got about two and a half weeks of class and then a week and a half of exams and other semester ending fun! The good part is ten or so days vacation at the end of April/beginning of May.

So in all, another Sunday afternoon to work a little, read a little, and hang out a little before diving back into another week of the madness that is the AH.